Turning Data into Dialogue: Luskin Center for Innovation-Inspired Art Exhibit Brings Shade Equity to Life

By Mara Elana Burstein

For years, UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation researchers have documented how heat affects communities unequally and supported communities advancing equitable access to shade and urban greening to protect vulnerable populations. Just this month, for example, Center researchers launched the first-ever national Shade Map — an interactive tool that helps communities identify where shade infrastructure is lacking and where to prioritize investments to reduce the effects of heat. Now, the Center’s heat research has inspired a new direction: art.

Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World, a new exhibition running from July 12 to October 12 at Descanso Gardens, brings shade equity to life through a multisensory art experience. Curated by Edith and Jolly de Guzman, the indoor-outdoor exhibition translates research into a public invitation to pause, reflect, feel, and act.

“Even with good intent, we’re still far from achieving equitable access to shade,” said Edith de Guzman, cooperative extension climate researcher with the Luskin Center for Innovation and co-curator of the exhibit. “The Luskin Center for Innovation’s research is about using data to drive systems change. With Roots of Cool, we wanted to add a human layer to translate those findings into emotion, memory, imagination, and action.”

Roots of Cool features work from over a dozen women artists as well as a diverse art collective whose installations span past, present, and future visions of climate equity. Pieces include imaginative bus stops that highlight public shade disparities, suspended umbrellas that serve as metaphors for tree canopies, and a “forest” of love letters to the future. An accompanying indoor show guides visitors through the layered relationships between trees, equity, and resilience.

The educational, interactive exhibition also includes several events.

• July 11- Opening Reception: meet the artists and curators, enjoy live music, and experience the exhibit firsthand. Entrance to the gardens will be free for those attending the reception.
• July 12, 11 am and 1 pm at the Sturt Haaga Gallery- Curator tours with Edith and Jolly de Guzman: an in-depth experience of the exhibit, and a discussion on the concept of shade equity and community-based climate solutions.
• July 25- Cultivate: Made in the Shade: enjoy tours, workshops, live demonstrations, and music throughout the gardens.
• August 2- Celebration of Cool: a day-long, family-friendly event with a panel discussion, free tree giveaways, a thermal imaging booth, a heat scavenger hunt, a giant puppet parade, art workshops, and more.

By inviting the public to explore shade equity through visual and emotional storytelling, Roots of Cool advances the Luskin Center for Innovation’s effort to make environmental data actionable and inclusive. Visitors will leave not only with a deeper understanding of the stakes but also with inspiration to make change in their own neighborhoods.

Roots of Cool is dedicated to Pam Gibson and Jim Hardie, and their decades of commitment to greening and cooling LA’s most forgotten neighborhoods. Roots of Cool and its programs are funded in part by the Perenchio Foundation and Accelerate Resilience Los Angeles, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors; USDA Forest Service; and an endowment from Heather Sturt Haaga and Paul G. Haaga, Jr. The exhibition and its programs are presented in collaboration among: UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, UC Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Los Angeles Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability, TreePeople, Arroyo Arts Collective, The Nature of Cities, Avenue 50 Studio, USC Public Exchange, Dashboard.Earth, and Accelerate Resilience Los Angeles.

Visit our website for more information about our heat equity and urban greening research.